Silicon Valley’s surge of defense technology startups is attracting billions in investment and transforming the landscape of U.S. national security.
Anduril Industries, which reached a $30.5 billion valuation in its most recent funding round, is part of a new wave of “neoprimes” startups aiming to rival established defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, and RTX (formerly Raytheon).
“There’s more money than ever going to what we call the ‘neoprimes’,” Jameson Darby, co-founder and director of autonomy at investment syndicate MilVet Angels, or MVA, stated to CNBC. “It’s still a fraction of the overall budget, but the trend is all positive.”
Other defense tech startups pushing against traditional industry leaders include SpaceX and Palantir Technologies, according to Darby, a founding member of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit.
Unlike the established primes, these startups operate more quickly, with leaner teams and a software-first approach. “Many of them are building things that can help close critical technology gaps that are really important to national security,” said Ernestine Fu Mak, co-founder of MVA and founder of Brave Capital.
READ: Charlie Javice, who defrauded JP Morgan Chase, sentenced to 7 years (
Over the past decades, as global military threats have evolved, the U.S. Department of Defense has pinpointed key technologies essential to national security, including hypersonics, energy resilience, space systems, integrated sensing, and cybersecurity.
“In a post-9/11 world, the entire Department of Defense effectively focused on… the global war on terrorism. It was our military versus insurgents, guerrillas, asymmetric warfare, relatively low-tech fighters in most cases,” as stated by Darby. But war today is increasingly centered on “great power competition,” said Mak.
“The focus is more on deterring and competing with [adversaries] in these very high-tech, multi-domain conflicts,” Mak added. “The battlefield is changing and new technologies are needed… warfare no longer being limited to land, sea, air. There’s also cyber and space domains that have become contested.”
Today, several of these Silicon Valley “neoprimes” are creating technologies that serve dual purposes, usable both in commercial markets and by the military.
“So things like artificial intelligence and autonomy have broad, sweeping commercial applications, but they’re also clearly a force multiplier in a military context,” said Darby. “[The] Department of War is rapidly assessing and adopting these dual-use technologies … they’re sending signals to the investment world, to the defense industrial base, that the U.S. government needs these things.”
READ: Defense firm Anduril doubles its valuation to over $30 billion in latest funding round (
Mak says the syndicate’s approximately 250 members consist of tech entrepreneurs, Wall Street investors, corporate executives, intelligence personnel, former military officers, and Navy SEALs. Collectively, they have backed companies such as Anduril Industries, Shield AI, Hermeus, Ursa Major, and Aetherflux.
“Overall, we believe that ‘neoprimes’ cannot exist in the abstract. They require people — individuals who bring technical expertise, who carry a deep sense of mission, and who contribute complementary voices and talents. Together, this coalition forms what we are convening and calling the ‘new guard,’” said Mak.
She added that today’s national security depends on both the “warrior’s insight on the battlefield” and the “builder’s drive for innovation.”
“Working together with engaged, informed patriots whose participation strengthens our defense ecosystem and reinforces the very fabric of national security,” Mak stated, as quoted by CNBC.
“No one in defense tech is looking to wage war, rather, it’s looking to deter it and wanting adversaries to think twice before threatening peace and stability,” Mak further added.